“Tiago Abreu, TCL Design & Innovation Lab: Prototypes for Future Televisions”

Graduated in Lisbon by IADE – Faculty of Design, Technology and Communication, and with a master’s degree in Barcelona, ​​Tiago Abreu already has a vast experience linked to design, in Portugal, Spain, Italy and China. He designed coffee machines, kitchen utensils and computer peripherals, such as keyboards and mice, and since October 2015 he has been at TCL Electronics, in Shenzhen, China, being responsible for X-LAB, the design and innovation laboratory from the company. He spoke with Dinheiro Vivo at Fuorisalone, the Milan Design Week, where he was making known the prototypes of what could become the televisions of the future.

Per year, how many research projects do you have in the laboratory and how many of them actually reach the market?

If we count them from their most initial phase, we are talking about more than 50 projects, which go through several stages of validation. These are projects that enter the pipeline of innovation and are reduced until we end up with one or two working prototypes [é um protótipo que representa já todas ou quase todas as funcionalidades do produto final]. But which may or may not reach the market.

They presented three at Milan Design Week. ART TV+, whose frame can be customized to suit the home decor, and which is accompanied by a soundbar with 12 speakers, some of which are detachable, the Dune, a 32-inch screen attached to a sound column, with wheels, which can be moved around the house, and whose screen rotates to be horizontal, and the Telly Table, a living room, in wood and bioleather, with an LCD screen that invites you to share entertainment experiences. How long have you been working on them?

We’ve been working on them for roughly two years now, although they all have different start and finish times. None are fully finished yet. The models serve us to show TCL’s technological capacity to create new types of products. But whether it reaches the market, or not, depends on several factors: the ability to be produced within the cost stipulated by the value of the business, whether the market is prepared to receive it and turn it into a product mainstream that can integrate the TCL portfolio, and if the consumer seeks that product and values ​​it. It is from the combination of these three factors, technological capacity, business model and consumer appetite, that the level of risk is defined so that we can move forward with mass production.

Of these three prototypes, which one is closer to the consumer’s hands?

The table, Telly TV, is still in the conceptual phase. It’s a long-term vision that tangibly shows what TCL is capable of doing one day in the future. It could be released, eventually in three years. Then we have the innovation breakthrough, which could be the TCL Dune, which already has added differentiation, but it is not at all a disruptive product like the table. The technology that is used is already more developed, which means that it is able to reach the market more easily. Then we have what is incremental, like ART Tv+ which is already ready. It uses current technology, developed by TCL, and that gives us the ability to trust that, if the market is receptive, we are ready to move forward.

What’s missing then?

Now is the phase that we call incubation, testing the market, with some retailers and consumers, to understand what the general appreciation is and if there is interest.

Does this Telly Table show that the television can be something completely different from what we imagine?

Design is closely linked to aesthetics and beauty, but it is much more, it is user experience, manufacturing processes, the life cycle of the product and how it can or cannot create an emotional connection with consumers. We could have presented the Telly Table in Barcelona, ​​at the Mobile World Congress, but we wanted to do it here as a tribute to furniture design. As for innovation, the important thing is the ability to generate new lines of business for the company, looking at where our technology can be integrated into daily use so that people can enjoy the experience they are having. What we want is to deliver valuable content to the consumer within their living space with their technology.

But can we still call this a television?

I call this a table smart e interactive, is not a TV. Here the experience is that this table has the capacity to understand who is around it and to create actions that promote human interaction. Technology has to serve to bring people together, to create social environments and for them to interact, whether at home or in spaces where this table may be present.

TCL won 28 design awards in 2022 alone and is already racking up new awards this year. To what extent does this influence the way the company invests in design?

The question, in the business market, will be how design can influence our business. The recognition of the awards lets the company know that the design is appreciated, but then it is necessary to assess whether or not the final consumer appreciates the extra value or recognition of the design. And that’s why we carry out studies and we know, for example, that the European market with the greatest appetite for design is France, where this item appears in the top 3 of consumer preferences. This knowledge is important for us to be able to segment products in a local way. And that’s why we intend to create a design department in Europe. This is being evaluated internally, but there are no dates yet.

And where will you stay France?

It could be. There it is, if we look at design in terms of business value, France would be the market. If we look at design from the perspective of trends, fashion, lifestylemaybe to design hub should be in Italy, London or Paris. But at the end of the day the intention of this department is to start in a way that is tangible. That easy value is created because we have the design present in what is the day-to-day of TCL’s business dynamics. My focus is not creating design, it’s creating value through design.

* The journalist traveled to Milan at the invitation of TCL